Welcome to 2015.

The new year is always an interesting time emotionally. Looking back on the old year and reflecting on the good and the bad. Looking ahead to what’s in store and if anything will really change.

If you’re like me, and you’ve experienced the emotional roller-coaster effects of looking back on a year full of regrets and disappointments, and also the same feeling looking ahead to a new year knowing that you’ve made resolutions in the past, and you’ve hoped things would finally come together, yet you know they may not, it can be discouraging.

You know how it goes…this is the year that I finally master this discipline; or this is the year that I’ll finally lose weight; or this is the year I’ll really start reading my Bible; this is the year I’ll take that leap of faith I’ve been thinking about; etc, etc, etc. We’ve all been there, done that, bought that t-shirt.

Death Cab For Cutie’s song ‘New Year’ from their record Transatlanticism always stands out in my mind, where Ben Gibbard sings out, “So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different.”

Over the years we’ve expected things to be different, to change. We’ve brought into the new year this palpable hope that a fresh start is all that we need and the glistening change of the calendar will do that for us. Then, the calendar changes from January to February, and that hope and light can sometimes turn into a distant memory.

I’m not trying to depress you. Here’s what I’m getting at. This time of year evokes so many feelings of inadequacy and lost hope. However, there is a sure reality to the love that God has for you which is anchored and tethered to his unchanging character, that, even though we can be completely undependable, unwise, unfaithful, unsound, and unfortunate, he has never wavered in his love, care and affection for us.

Nothing will change that.

His love is not based on if I get my act together this year. It’s not based on whether I come through on the things that I’ve been so committed to coming through on for the year. He loves you because he loves you.

If I could make one New Year’s resolution this year, it’d be to more fully understand how to receive this love. I’ve had difficulties over the years. I never verbalized it, but the way I lived and thought was that so much was based on me and my performance.

Let’s learn and understand how to receive this astounding love of Jesus together.